Cat Gift Part 3 - the Vinegaroon.
Apparently, the cat gods were listening - finally a chance to observe a Vinegaroon up close.
Some weekends here are quiet.
We garden, cook, clean, play with the cats and chickens, and nap.
It was such a quiet Saturday I was not prepared for the excitement.
I was out in the studio sorting mealworms into larva, pupa, and beetles when Robert came in. He said something - but with the air conditioner on I couldn’t hear. But his body language said there was something up. Apparently, I wasn’t moving fast enough because he cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled, “Pollux has a Vinegaroon!”
Well, that got me moving.
Of all the things we’ve seen since coming to New Mexico, the Vinegaroon has fascinated me the most. Our first encounter was in the Studio - our elongated frame outbuilding we use for an office and storage. It started off as a very tiny garage before being added on to create a weaving studio, and then a junk room. Robert found one by the door - in my memory, it was almost as long as his shoe but that is unlikely even if you included the whippy tail (they are also commonly called whiptail scorpions) which is actually a flagella. They are fierce looking but are only to be feared if you are a cockroach (they LOVE cockroaches).
Our second encounter occurred when the boys, our two siamese cats Pollux and Castor, trapped one between two bricks in the living room in the adobe farmhouse.
We were still unpacking and I quickly found a shoebox. I wasn’t quite sure how to get it into it (I’m crazy brave with boxes, glasses, or other traps but skittish when picking things up with my hand I haven’t met yet.) Lucky for me, the darling thing walked right in. I took it out to a place, under our ponderosa pine, which is always full of cockroaches, and let it go.
After that, my encounters get a bit muddled. There was a huge one that just sauntered across the path in the middle of the night, and some looking for dry ground when it rained.
They fascinated us so much, that we have stopped using any chemical deterrents for the insects around the house; even limiting our use of diatomaceous earth.
Last summer there were a pair of them in the Studio. Every evening when I put the chickens to bed and feed our feral cat MoMA I also walk and lock the studio. I would invariably disturb our resident pair of vinegaroons. They were fun to watch as they patrolled and I missed them when the cold came and they disappeared.
This year I’ve been bereft.
Not a single Vinegaroon in sight. So, when Robert called me to come in and save the one Pollux had found I didn’t think twice before offering it my hand.
To my surprise it accepted. It walked into my palm, and then gradually made it up my forearm. It didn’t weigh much, but its feet were much more needly than I expected. Didn’t notice too much on my palm, but the flesh of my wrist is apparently much softer. I had to remind myself that it wasn’t hurting me.
Robert got some great pictures (which of course I forgot to ask him for). My new friend and I left for the studio and somehow (one-handed, since she was on my left arm) I set up my other enclosure with the bare minimum of stuff - a paper towel for traction, and some water - and she wandered in.
We think she came up through the floor in the living room. There is a section of ancient weathered wood flooring that we haven’t yet torn out. When you shine a light in you can see down to the dirt. We don’t have a foundation, just dirt - it’s an adobe thing. The first thing she did, when I put her in the enclosure was head for the water and start grooming herself. By the time I’d come back with food (two darkling beetles and a larva aka mealworm) she was looking much better.
I haven’t caught her eating - timing is everything and apparently mine sucks - but I’ll keep working on it. Found a small cockroach and put that in last night - this morning there are only bits strewn around. She’s a bit of a messy eater.
I gotta run, but I’ll be back with images and more information about Vinegaroons.
